'Tremendous' budget savings can be found in middle management, says councillor Doug Ford

'Tremendous' budget savings can be found in middle management, says Toronto city councillor Doug Ford

The Ford administration will go through the ranks of city management with a “fine tooth comb” in its push to cut costs, says the Mayor’s brother and vice-chair of the budget committee.

The 2013 budget process will not get underway for another month or two, but city councillors who will be poring over balance sheets are already thinking about how to squeeze savings out of the city’s $9.4-billion operation.

Councillor Doug Ford predicts there is a “tremendous amount of savings” to be found in middle management.

“We have a whole binder of every manager in the city and an organizational chart. That’s how the budget chief found that one manager reports into another manager, into another manager. There’s just layer after layer,” he said.

“We’re going to go through it with a fine tooth comb,” he said, adding that the goal is to institute more efficient practices and reduce the number of supervisors without, he stressed, jeopardizing customer service.

“Our first preference is through attrition.”

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The drive does not necessarily mean layoffs, said budget committee member Councillor Peter Milczyn, since a chunk of the workforce is older and savings could be found through retirement, but he confirmed the administration wants to start “restricting and reducing the size of our management component.”

“We have dealt with the major union contracts, and in terms of efficiencies, we will be looking at management levels, in terms of we don’t have one person supervising two people, or two people supervising five people,” said Mike Del Grande, the budget chief. “I would imagine a lot of [the savings] would come through attrition.”

Mayor Rob Ford has made no secret about the fact that he thinks the city bureaucracy is bloated. Last year, the municipality offered employees a buyout package and eventually issued pink slips to slim its ranks. In all, 2,338.5 positions were set to disappear as part of the 2012 budget, about half of which had been vacant.

In city divisions alone, 714 employees faced layoff, 48 of whom were supervisors. (The numbers may have changed slightly because council reversed some proposed cuts.)

An official in the Mayor’s office doesn’t consider it to be about targeting a specific group, rather “restructuring” the way in which some departments work, which could cut down the number of managers.

Of the 32,852 active employees of the Toronto public service, 990 are in a managerial position, or higher, a city spokesperson reported. Supervisors are in a different job category.

“There might be another offer of buyouts,” said Councillor Milczyn. “Actual layoffs, I wouldn’t say no at this point, but I don’t know that will happen.”

Mr. Del Grande said he is interested in setting some benchmarks when it comes to the number of employees under every supervisor, and review pay scales on the managerial side so as to attract more talent.

Richard Majkot, executive director of COTAPSA, the association that represents managers at the City of Toronto, said this year’s budget deleted about 220 management positions, some of which were vacant.

“There may be some councillors who are speculating, there may be some councillors who are hoping management will take another hit. There has been no indication to us or discussion about a further reduction,” said Mr. Majkot.